A uniform resource locator (URL) is a widely recognized syntax for describing the location of an electronic resource, such as a webpage, data file, or service. A URL is similar to a postal address or telephone number in that it refers to a particular resource using a sequence of letters, digits, special characters, or any combination of these. For instance, using a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) scheme, the format of a URL includes either the physical IP address or domain name of a host computing system, and a path to a resource provisioned by the host, such as “http://www.example.com/home/index.html.” The path generally follows a structured file naming convention used by the host (e.g., “/home/index.htm”). In some cases, descriptive attributes may be appended to the path (e.g., “/home/index.htm#summary”). It is possible for some URLs to become very long, complex, and aesthetically unpleasing. Such so-called long URLs can be difficult to read, remember, type out, and share with others. Further, some long URLs are not usable in services that have character limits, such as Twitter®.